Junior Provides Peers with “Quotes of the Day”

It takes up ten minutes of precious getting-ready time every morning. It takes choosing each individual name and sending over seven separate messages every day. But for junior Samie Fetzer, it’s just another morning.

Fetzer has been sending out a carefully selected quote of the day every day since the beginning of this school year. She started when she was disappointed to find the quotes of the week that used to be on the pages of the planner had been replaced with wellness and study tips.

It started off as just a daily quote from a book she’d gotten as a gift. Every morning, she would send one out to a few close friends. But soon, she had to send it out in multiple messages- her phone would only send it to ten people at a time. What had started with just a small group of friends was growing by the day. Today, Fetzer sends the quote of the day to 64 people.

“Once one friend in a friend group got it, everyone else wanted it,” Fetzer said. “It just kind of grew.”

Fetzer finds inspiration for her messages everywhere, and no two quotes are alike: messages range from inspirational phrases from the founding fathers to MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This.” And Fetzer loves that the unplanned, somewhat eccentric quotes are sometimes the ones best liked.

“[‘You Are Beautiful’] was on the radio on the way home one night and I decided to use it [the next day],” Fetzer said. “[Quotes can] come from websites, books, Criminal Minds always starts with a quote. If they quote something… and I like it, I’ll use it.”

Fetzer says she’ll keep sending until people get tired of her messages, which she hopes won’t be for awhile, since she’s already chosen the quote for this year’s and next graduation days. She’s even hoping to get an early upgrade on her cell so that maybe sending will be a little less time-consuming.

Fetzer hopes that her daily quotes will not only brighten people’s days, but possibly make them think about the advice they’re receiving from great minds like Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Winston Churchill. What she wants most of all is for the more inspiring passages she sends out, like her favorite she’s sent so far from Winnie the Pooh, to help someone through a difficult or emotional time.

“Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”